Ben Barlyn, a former assistant prosecutor in Hunterdon, wants state legislators to look into his complaints about Paula Dow, a former state attorney general, before voting on whether she should become a Superior Court judge. The committee should explore the allegations “at her confirmation hearing,” he said in an interview today, Tuesday.

Dow is one of the defendants in Barlyn’s 49-page lawsuit, filed earlier this year. His termination in 2010 was because he alleged that the attorney general’s dismissal of an indictment against former county Sheriff Deborah Trout and two others was “politically motivated, corrupt and constituted official misconduct,” Barlyn wrote in a recent letter to state Sen. Nicholas Scutari (D-Union), who is chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. The committee looks into the fitness of candidates for judgeships, and Barlyn wants it to consider his situation. He sent Scutari a copy of his lawsuit.

“I’m not arguing that she should or should not be confirmed, but it’s a matter of vital public import, given the nature of the allegation,” by him, he said.

Besides Dow, listed as defendants are the Prosecutor’s Office; then-acting Hunterdon Prosecutor Dermot O’Grady; Hunterdon County; the state; the state Division of Criminal Justice; the Attorney General’s Office and up to 25 other people whose identities were not known at the time the suit was filed.

According to the suit, Barlyn was fired after objecting publicly at a department meeting to the dismissal of 43 counts of official misconduct and other crimes against Trout, who was then sheriff; Michael Russo, who was an undersheriff, and John Falat Jr., a former Sheriff’s Office investigator.

The Prosecutor’s Office probe had resulted in a grand jury handing up indictments, which the Attorney General’s Office later said were flawed. The indictments were sealed, but released by Superior Court Assignment Judge Yolanda Ciccone on May 7, 2010, the day J. Patrick Barnes resigned as Hunterdon County prosecutor. The case was sent to the Attorney General’s Office for “review” the same day. According to the suit, the timing of Barnes’ “forced” resignation and the release of the indictments was no coincidence.

In August 2010 a deputy attorney general sought dismissal of all charges against the trio and a Superior Court judge complied.

In his letter to Scutari, Barlyn said his allegations “are corroborated by hundreds of pages of documents,” which he offered to the committee.

Gov. Christie two weeks ago withdrew Dow’s nomination for a judgeship in Essex County—where she’s been caught in a political tug-of-war he’s having with Democratic senators— and nominated her in Burlington County. She recently moved to Willingboro. He’d nominated her last December, but sent her to a post at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey while the Senate considered the appointment.

Barlyn’s suit remains unresolved. The state has filed a motion for summary judgment to dismiss it, with a hearing set for in July. If that fails, then the case would reach the “discovery” phase, with both sides exchanging evidence and documents.